A Zapotec teenager won first prize at the World Innovative Science Fair in Indonesia with a short film about chauvinism.
Azul Sicarú Morales Cruz, 14, from Juchitán, Oaxaca, presented the film Micro-chauvinism, A Reality in Front of Our Eyes with a virtual presentation on July 13 in the social science category. She won the opportunity to participate after winning the Mexican International Innovation, Science and Technology Fair.
The 3-minute 27-second short film was written, directed and edited by Morales over a month. She had the help of her two maternal grandparents, who appear as actors.
The young director said she gained an interest in digital content from the age of 11. In her spare time she took online courses on social media, video editing, digital marketing and digital production, and worked alongside her father on his news website covering the Isthmus of Tehuantepec.
Morales explained how she developed the project, and the difficulties she faced. “I studied micro-chauvinism. I learned directing strategies online, how to make a short film and other techniques … The most difficult thing was recording my grandparents, because they are not actors,” she said.
Micromachismos ¿Son Micro? - Micromachistmo
She explained it was difficult to have her grandparents portray the subtle way in which men can exercise psychological control over women, to the point that they destroy their self-esteem.
The young director hopes that her short film will be shared on digital media to raise awareness among young people about the different forms that micro-chauvinism takes.
Situated in the state of Chiapas, around 220 kilometers from San Cristóbal de las Casas and close to Guatemala, Palenque is considered one of the most important Maya cities of the Classic Period, between A.D. 250 and 900.
UNESCO recognized the “Pre-Hispanic City and National Park of Palenque” as a World Heritage Site in 1987. The archaeological zone, which has many well-preserved structures, is amid lush green surroundings and is perhaps one of the most beautiful ancient Maya cities in present-day Mexico.
The city’s original name has been identified as Lakamha’ (the place of the great waters). It also had several other names, including Na Chán (city of snakes). The territory under its control was called B’aakal (bone).
The modern name of Palenque derives from the nearby 16th-century settlement of Santo Domingo de Palenque.
Before it grew into a powerful Maya city, Palenque started out as a village around 150 B.C. The city’s golden era is considered to have been during A.D. 600–900, when the structures in the city’s center were constructed.
The Temple of the Foliated Cross is just one part of a complex of temples.
Palenque eventually became the capital of a dynasty that ruled a large area of the present-day states of Chiapas and Tabasco. The famed king, K’inich Janaab’ Pakal, called “Lord Sun Shield” and other terms, belonged to this dynasty. He ruled for 68 years in Palenque from age 12.
The National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) says nine males and two females ruled in Palenque from A.D. 345–603.
As you enter the archaeological zone, you will feel the refreshing surroundings of the forest, despite the usually hot climate. Near the entrance is an unexcavated temple.
Across from this mound is a series of temples where the burials of elites were discovered. To the west is the Temple of the Skull, named after a stucco relief — most likely of a rabbit — on a pillar of one of the entrances. A tomb with over 700 jade pieces was discovered there in an older structure below the temple.
To the east is another notable temple, where the famous Tomb of the Red Queen was discovered. INAH has identified her as King Pakal’s wife, Ixik Tz’aka’ab Ajaw (Lady Ruler of Generations).
Archaeologists discovered the tomb inside one of the substructures in 1994, as well as a jade mask covering the queen’s face, accessories on her body and other rich funerary offerings. The contemporary “Red Queen” name comes from the cinnabar — a red mineral discovered on her remains and the offerings and in the sarcophagus.
The Red Queen’s remains now reside next to the site at the Alberto Ruz Lhuillier Museum, named after the Mexican archaeologist who in 1952 discovered the burial site of King Pakal the Great here.
Further east is the widely photographed Temple of the Inscriptions, which contains Pakal’s sarcophagus in a burial chamber Lhuillier discovered 25 meters below the temple floor. This nine-level temple pyramid is named after three limestone slabs with hieroglyphic text. There are stucco reliefs on the pilasters to the front of the building.
The sarcophagus is said to depict scenes that include what may be a recreation of King Pakal’s death. His jade funerary mask and other accessories are displayed in the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City. A replica of the tomb is, however, located at the Palenque site museum.
Climbing this temple is not allowed, and the tomb was closed to the public for preservation.
North of the Temple of the Inscriptions is a beautiful square called the Central Plaza. You can observe the surroundings of the ancient city from here.
East of the plaza is a structure known as The Palace, a large complex constructed on a low platform with many buildings, courtyards and other spaces. The palace complex has many relief carvings and sculptures.
A sculpture from the North Group, which has five temples on a platform.
It is identified as having been an elite residential structure and an administrative and ceremonial center. The four-story tower around the center of the palace is believed to have been an observatory.
One of the palace’s many rooms — called House E — is believed to be King Pakal’s throne room. It has a stone carving called the Oval Palace Tablet depicting his crowning. Another of the palace’s notable sections is a courtyard with relief carvings of prisoners. During our visit, the palace was cordoned off to visitors.
Also by the palace, you can get a glimpse of Palenque’s water system. To the east is the Otulum stream, which begins in the mountains and runs through the site. The stream enters an underground water channel built near the palace.
Southeast of the palace is the Cross Complex, which has three temples situated around a plaza that were built by King Pakal’s son, King K’inich Kan B’ahlam II, called LordSerpent-Jaguar II. You may hear the fascinating roars of nearby howler monkeys while exploring this area.
The three temples, each dedicated to a different deity of the triad, have shrines symbolizing steam baths — which were places of birth. Hence the temples are believed to symbolize the birthplace of each god. The three temples also have reliefs thought to depict scenes involving King Serpent-Jaguar.
East of the plaza is the Temple of the Foliated Cross. This temple has a stone tablet with a cross-like detail and other figures. North of the plaza is the largest structure within the Cross Complex: the Temple of the Cross. One of the two stone tablets inside is said to depict a god smoking tobacco.
West of the plaza is the Temple of the Sun, which features a picturesque roof comb — the crowning structure of a pyramid. Inside is a panel thought to depict scenes, including ones with King Serpent-Jaguar.
Next to the Temple of the Sun is another small temple worth seeing, built by King Serpent-Jaguar’s brother and dedicated to him. It also has a tablet depicting scenes involving King Serpent-Jaguar. Also in this section, Temple XV, where several tombs were discovered, is worth seeing.
The north group of buildings has five temples on a platform. An interesting structure here is one called the Temple of the Count, a pyramid with a temple on top, where several tombs were found. This does not refer to its function within Palenque but is named after the European explorer Jean-Frédéric Waldeck, a colorful figure who often referred to himself as a count — whether truthfully or not is unclear — and who is speculated to have lived here for a few months during his time in Palenque in the 19th century.
An absolute must-see before you leave is the Palenque site museum near the archaeological zone. It has many stunning artifacts in addition to the Red Queen Pavilion section and the replica sarcophagus of King Pakal.
Thilini Wijesinhe, a financial professional turned writer and entrepreneur, moved to Mexico in 2019 from Australia. She writes from Mérida, Yucatán. Her website can be found at https://momentsing.com/
Mexico will reestablish diplomatic and commercial relations with North Korea, Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard said.
“We have a position of hands-off around the world, we respect every government and we’re going to reestablish relations with North Korea as well, like any other country,” Ebrard told reporters on the sidelines of a United Nations Security Council meeting in New York last week.
Mexico currently has a seat on the Security Council after being elected unopposed last year as the representative for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Ebrard acknowledged that the east Asian hermit kingdom has violated international law and Security Council resolutions by carrying out nuclear tests and launching long-range missiles. He didn’t say when relations with North Korea might resume or reveal any details about bilateral negotiations.
The previous federal government cut Mexico’s ties with the nation led by Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un in 2017 amid international pressure to do so, especially from the United States, in light of its nuclear activity. The Foreign Affairs Ministry declared the North Korean ambassador a persona non grata and ordered him to leave the country within 72 hours.
The Mexican government said at the time that the expulsion was to express its “absolute rejection” of North Korea’s nuclear activity, describing it as “a grave threat to peace and international security and a growing threat to nations of the region, including fundamental allies of Mexico such as Japan and South Korea.”
The office of then president Enrique Peña Nieto ordered government departments to comply with UN resolutions on Pyongyang.
Ebrard’s indication that Mexico will reestablish relations with North Korea may be an appeal to the ruling Morena party’s base, while showing foreign policy independence from the United States, the news agency Bloomberg said.
A four-tonne, 40-year-old Asian elephant moved into his new home Monday at a new animal sanctuary 30 kilometers north of Culiacán, Sinaloa.
“Big Boy” had spent 30 years as a circus animal and was then kept chained in Jalisco for five years after a law prohibiting the use of animals in circuses went into force in 2015. He was transferred from Jalisco to Sinaloa three months ago.
The elephant spent three months in Culiacán Zoo where his diet was monitored and he was given medical attention, before being moved to the open air sanctuary earlier this week.
The 21-hectare Ostok Animal Protection & Sanctuary will house animals whose ecosystems are threatened and those rescued from illegal trafficking, poaching and abandonment.
The project came to life when animal rights activist Arturo Islas Allende lobbied restaurant entrepreneur Jorge Cueva, known as Mr. Tempo, to purchase Big Boy for about US $400,000. Allende and president of the Association of Zoos, Breeders and Aquariums, Ernesto Zazueta, then founded the sanctuary.
However, looking after the elephant is no mean feat: it eats more than 200 kilograms of alfalfa, oats and fruit per day.
Zazueta explained the need for the sanctuary. “We are in a very, very critical situation. In the last 30 years we have lost 40% of all the fauna in our country and 30% is in danger of extinction,” he said.
“The last governments increased urbanization mega-projects that demolish the homes of hundreds of thousands of animals, and reduced the budget allocated to the environment, causing a lack of protection for the vast majority of Natural Protected Areas and the abandonment of wild fauna,” he added.
Pope Francis urged residents of the city — at the center of a cartel war — to put their faith in God. shutterstock
Pope Francis has sent a message of solidarity and compassion to the residents of the violence-stricken municipality of Aguililla, Michoacán.
“You are not alone,” the pope told residents in a letter to Apatzingán Bishop Cristóbal Ascencio García, whose diocese includes the Tierra Caliente municipality at the center of a turf war between the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and the Cárteles Unidos.
The letter, read aloud by Ascencio at a Mass on Sunday, urged Aguililla residents to place their faith in God and asserted that “the Lord is strength and mercy that never abandons his children.”
“… The church is attentive and close to all those who suffer,” Francis said in the letter dated June 11.
The pope told the bishop he was aware of “great suffering” caused by violent confrontations between rival drug-trafficking groups in territory under his pastoral care.
“… The climate of fear and insecurity that afflicts the population is contrary to the will of God; He wants all his sons and daughters to live their life in a safe climate of serenity and harmony,” he wrote.
The pope said he wanted to make his presence felt “in these difficult times,” adding that he was praying to give the people of Aguililla strength to overcome their suffering with strength and patience.
“I can understand the feeling of despondency and the sensation of helplessness … but remember you are not alone…” he wrote.
The pope’s prayers and wishes were insufficient to prevent a breakdown of talks last week between federal authorities and Aguililla residents.
Discussions were suspended because a government offer to the residents – which included the provision of a range of social programs and the construction of infrastructure – failed to respond to their main demands: clear passage on local highways that have been frequently blocked by the feuding criminal groups and enforce security.
Local priest Gilberto Vergara told the newspaper Reforma that residents remained dissatisfied with the army’s efforts.
“What hindered [the talks] … is that residents have been protesting at the military barracks in Aguililla for 15 days; the demand of the people is for the soldiers to leave the barracks and patrol [the streets],” he said.
“They went [to the barracks] once to demand that they go out and clear the roads but they didn’t do it. There’s been discontent since then,” Vergara said.
While the soldiers remain in their barracks instead of patrolling the municipality, dialogue with the government “looks difficult,” the priest said.
Angry at the army for not doing the work they believe it should be doing, some residents recently prevented a military helicopter from landing at a heliport in Aguililla that has been used to fly in supplies to soldiers.
Residents, who have forced shortages of essential goods due to the highway blockades, subsequently dug up the heliport with backhoes.
The pope is not the first high-ranking Catholic Church figure to take an interest in Aguililla. The Vatican’s ambassador to Mexico, Archbishop Franco Coppola, visited the municipality in April and blamed the absence of the state for the situation of insecurity.
Hilton's Conrad Tulum is to open near the end of the year.
U.S. hotel chain Hilton will open three new hotels in coastal locations and has 30 more projects under development to add to its 70-strong offering in Mexico.
The new accommodations comprise two hotels in Tulum, Quintana Roo: the 735-room Hilton Tulum All-Inclusive Resort and the 349-room Conrad Tulum; and one hotel in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco: the 444-room Hilton Vallarta Riviera.
The all-inclusive hotel in Tulum features a secluded beach and a waterpark, and the smaller Conrad hotel gives guests a choice of seven restaurants. The hotel in Puerto Vallarta has a private beach, seven restaurants and six bars.
The smaller accommodation in Tulum and the hotel in Puerto Vallarta are anticipated to open in the fourth quarter of 2021, and the all-inclusive Tulum hotel in the first quarter 2022.
Hilton’s Americas president Danny Hughes said prospects were healthy for the Mexican tourism industry. “Mexico has always been an incredibly important destination for Hilton. These new additions are one more symbol that tourism in Mexico is rebounding and it is with great pride that we continue evolving our offerings in this burgeoning market, especially in the luxury and all-inclusive segments,” he said.
Charles Elmann Fasja, CEO of Parks Holdings, the company that will partner with Hilton in Tulum, explained why the country is attractive. “We believe Mexico’s unique combination of people, culture, gastronomy, and natural beauties make it the best global destination for tourism.”
The tourism industry has been recovering since the Covid-19 pandemic all but canceled international tourism for most of 2020.
A record number of U.S. citizens flew to Mexico in May; 9% more than during the same month in 2019 and 4,117% more than in pandemic restricted May of 2020.
The Colorado River toad, the focus of attention every July in Punta Chueca, Sonora.
Dozens of people from Mexico and abroad traveled to a small coastal town in Sonora earlier this month to celebrate the new year for the indigenous Seri culture and learn about and take a very unique “medicine” – psychoactive toxins emitted by the Colorado River toad.
Held in Punta Chueca, a Seri town on the Gulf of California 140 kilometers west of Hermosillo, the event attracted citizens from the United States, Europe and several Mexican states.
The key attraction was the opportunity to try 5-MeO-DMT, a psychedelic of the tryptamine class found in the glands of the toad, also known as the Sonoran Desert toad or bufo alvarius.
The substance is considered an ancestral medicine with the capacity to treat a range of physical, emotional and spiritual ailments. It is commonly dried, mixed with tobacco and smoked to trigger “a powerful religious-like trip that lasts about an hour,” according to the web site Addiction Center.
Octavio Rettig Hinojosa, a shaman known as El Profeta del Sapo (the prophet of the toad), told the newspaper Milenio that the “venom” is extracted from toads without harming them and is therefore a sustainable substance.
Shaman Octavio Rettig, right, and a candidate for treatment.
“It’s an anti-hallucinogen, it’s something that will remove the madness from your mind, everything that removes you from the here and now, everything that is not real,” he said.
“The bufo alvarius lives buried [beneath the ground] 10 months a year and in the rainy season it comes to the surface to reproduce, eat and share this ancestral medicine with us,” Rettig said.
Another proponent of toad-extracted 5-MeO-DMT is former heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson, who has traveled to Sonora to smoke the substance and is apparently a regular user. He has said that using the psychoactive enabled him to give up alcohol and other drugs and even motivated him to make a boxing comeback last year.
“I took the medicine and the medicine told me to get into shape. It really blew my mind …” Tyson said before an exhibition bout against Roy Jones Jr. last November.
In early July, foreign tourists mingled with Mexican artists and even politicians on Seri, or Com Cáac land, in Punta Chueca. The common denominator was interest in 5-MeO-DMT.
“They came from the United States, Germany, France, Italy, everywhere to try the medicine. I’m very thankful to see so many people because we thought they wouldn’t come because of the pandemic and fear of the disease,” said Seri community leader Enrique Robles Barnett.
Smoking toad venom in Punta Chueca.
“In Mexico we have this blessed medicine that … has surprising results … in very specific cases like addictions,” Roco Pachukote, vocalist of the legendary Mexican rock band Maldita Vecindad, told Milenio.
He has been in Punta Chueca in recent months and says he is engaged in “spiritual activism” and community work in the town.
Rettig, who is originally from Jalisco, said 5-MeO-DMT can be used to treat depression, anxiety and addiction to substances such as methamphetamine.
One person who arrived in Punta Chueca to seek treatment for drug addiction, as well as to leave behind dark memories from time spent in prison, was Oscar Vázquez of Houston, Texas.
“I come [to Punta Chueca] to seek answers that have been forbidden to me since childhood. … I had addiction problems with cocaine, crystal meth, marijuana, codeine pills but with the medicine I was born again, a happiness from the depths of my being [emerged]. I smile, I laugh, things I hadn’t done for a long time,” he said.
Pepe of Monterrey arrived on the Sonoran coast to seek healing from a divorce, Gustavo of Mazatlán sought liberation from guilt associated with the death of his mother and a woman named Norma was able to put an end to her internal suffering, Milenio reported.
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“… Today in pandemic times, in which emotional and psychiatric illnesses have increased the suicide rate and domestic violence, this medicine is a real alternative to treat these kinds of illnesses and suffering,” Vázquez said.
“It’s a viable and sustainable solution and I believe that it’s going to put Sonora and Mexico on the map …”
One sign of the growing popularity of 5-MeO-DMT extracted from the Colorado River toad is that it is even available on e-commerce website Mercado Libre for 1,200 pesos (US $60) a gram.
The deputy health minister speaks to reporters Tuesday in the National Palace.
There will be no “total closures” of public spaces despite the recent increase in coronavirus cases in many parts of Mexico, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said Tuesday.
Mexico is currently amid a third wave of the pandemic as the highly infectious Delta strain takes hold in many states.
But the federal government’s coronavirus point man said the implementation of lockdown measures such as those mandated at the start of the pandemic are no longer viable.
“We have a tired society, fatigued from having these long months of the epidemic. What one can ask of society in terms of the reduction of mobility is not the same today as it was in February 2020,” López-Gatell told reporters at the president’s regular news conference.
He stressed that the government can’t force people to stay at home and noted that strict restrictions have an economic impact at both the individual level and in general terms for the entire country.
“… There are public places that remain open. The [recommended] confinement is no longer going to imply total closures like those … at the beginning of the [the voluntary lockdown from March-May 2020],” López-Gatell said.
“… It shouldn’t surprise you that there are public spaces that remain open even when there is growth in the epidemic, like in Quintana Roo. But what is very, very important is that the different health security measures are complied with completely in those public spaces,” the deputy minister said.
He emphasized that the third wave of the pandemic is a very different proposition to the first and second waves because the majority of people who are most vulnerable to serious illness are vaccinated against Covid-19. López-Gatell said 43% of the population is vaccinated with at least one dose and most recent cases were detected among young people, many of whom have not yet had the opportunity to get a shot.
The majority of Covid patients currently in hospital are younger than 52 and 97% have not been vaccinated, he said, stressing that vaccination protects people against serious disease and death.
Meanwhile, Mexico’s accumulated case tally increased to 2.66 million on Monday with 5,307 new infections reported, while the official Covid-19 death toll rose by 138 to 236,469.
President López Obrador said on Tuesday that alleged government-ordered spying several years ago that may have targeted him and his close allies was “shameful” and added that his government did not spy on anyone.
British newspaper The Guardian reported on Monday that at least 50 people close to López Obrador, among many others, were potentially targeted by the previous administration of president Enrique Peña Nieto after it purchased Pegasus spying software from Israel-based NSO Group.
Pegasus was exclusively sold to government clients around the world by the Israeli company, and it is also believed to have been used to target journalists and human rights activists.
López Obrador has long railed against his predecessor’s record, saying it was rife with corruption and abuses. He said on Tuesday that if the Pegasus contract was still active it must be canceled.
Mexico‘s Ministry of Defence and Attorney General’s Office were clients of NSO Group.
The Guardian report was based on what the newspaper and other media outlets have said was a leak of some 50,000 phone numbers that were selected for possible surveillance by NSO Group’s government clients.
The list, first accessed by the French nonprofit journalist outlet Forbidden Stories and advocacy group Amnesty International, was shared with The Guardian and more than a dozen other news outlets.
Reuters has not been able to independently confirm the existence of the data leak or whether the contract was still active.
The value of Mexico’s agrifood exports in the first five months of the year was the highest in 29 years, the Agriculture Ministry said.
Agrifood products destined for foreign shores brought in US $18.7 billion from January through May, and imports were just under $14.5 billion for a surplus of $4.23 billion, the fourth highest in 27 years.
Of the $33.2 billion agrifood trade with foreign countries, 56.4% was money entering the economy: more than earnings from petroleum exports or foreign tourism.
The biggest exports were beer at nearly $2.2 billion, avocados at $1.3 billion; tequila and mezcal, $1.1 billion; tomatoes, $1.1 billion; and peppers, $817 million.
More than 55% of imports were concentrated in four groups: cereals, at 21%; oil seeds and oleaginous fruits at 15%; meat at 14%, and dairy and other products of animal origin at 6%.
Primary agricultural and fish products alone, discounting agroindustrial produce, registered a surplus of $1.8 billion, with exports of more than $9 billion. For the month of May, those exports grew 17.5% in annual terms.
Vegetables, fruits and beverages were the biggest sellers from January to May. Export of the latter grew 30.8% in annual terms.
In terms of specific products, flower exports rocketed 94% annually, natural honey 83.2%, tobacco 60.7% and citrus 57.5%.
Agroindustrial trade alone left a surplus of $2.4 billion. Among those products, the largest annual increases were in meat and poultry offal at 156.4%, soybean oil 75.4%, and soups, stews or broths 55%.
For all trade, Mexico’s top trading partner was the United States, which purchased 75% of exports at a value of $361 billion in 2019, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC).
Canada was second in 2019 with 4.4% at $21.3 billion, followed by China, Germany and Taiwan.
